Palm Springs
(Coachella Valley)

WHEN THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS (AND IN THE ART WORLD) For a limited engagement, Kevin Rolston brings his darkly whimsical Deal with the Dragon to the Palm Springs Cultural Center, and it’s a thrilling, compelling reminder of how a single performer can conjure an entire world onstage.   Written by and starring Rolston, Deal…

FUNNY GIRL, SERIOUS STAKES ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ In the world premiere of The Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks, now running at Coachella Valley Repertory, playwright Gregg Ostrin (The Spy Who Went Into Rehab) blends political farce, nostalgic Hollywood glamor, and razor-sharp insight into an unexpectedly moving comedy that…

AMAZING AND EPIC Palm Springs’ queer theatre company, The Bent, is justifiably proud that they are the first non-professional company on the West Coast to be granted the rights to Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, Part One, a play that The Telegraph described as “The most important American play of the century.” Almost every actor in…

A HILARIOUS DRIVE DOWN MEMORY LANE Of course I love a big musical with choruses singing and dancing, but on reflection, several of my favorite shows have intimate casts such as Nunsense, The Fantasticks and the original You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Firmly holding a place on that list is the four-hander Forever Plaid,…

A Stunning Dissection of Family, Politics, and the Conservative Mythos CV Rep’s Other Desert Cities is nothing short of revelatory. John Robin Baitz’s lacerating family drama, set in a chic Palm Springs home but echoing across decades of American political history, finds fresh fire in this masterful production directed by Philip Wm McKinley. Gorgeously acted…

THE INMATES ARE EASY TO LIKE IN PALM CANYON’S CUCKOO’S NEST Upon entering Palm Canyon Theatre, one first sees the onstage set for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Designer J. W. Layne has created a very naturalistic dayroom of a mental hospital. Especially effective are ceiling beams which extend almost to the front row…

AN ABSURDIST ROMP INTO MODERN LOVE AND MADNESS Desert Ensemble Theater presents Christopher Durang’s hilarious comedy, Beyond Therapy, through April 27. The play is an exploration of neurosis, relationships, and the absurdity of modern psychobabble, and in this staging, directed by Jerome Elliott Moskowitz, the production delivers a chaotic cocktail of comedy and existential dread that…

NOT A FALSE NOTE IN DEZART PERFORMS’ WONDERFUL PRODUCTION William Finn and James Lapine‘s two-act musical Falsettos follows Marvin (Tim Ewing), an appealing, brainy, anxious, obsessive, wealthy Jewish gay man who struggles to create a tight-knit family out of his eclectic array of core relationships: an ex-wife Trina (Stephanie Lynne Mason), new lover Whizzer (Patrick…

TRY TO FIND A HAIRSPRAY WITH BETTER HOLD; THIS ONE WORKS FROM HEAD TO NECK! As I was driving to the Rancho Mirage Amphitheatre I noticed that the regular Friday Night Stress was lifting from my shoulders. I already loved Hairspray and Desert Theatricals can be quite stylish and classy, but I soon discovered that…

A SLICE OF LIFE WITH LAYERS OF ISSUES The Bent, Coachella Valley’s main theatre geared towards the queer community, is currently running The Cake, playwright Bekah Brunstetter’s take on the true news story about a bakery that refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. The Cake is a dramedy, with four actors generating…